Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking

Following their well-received adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, writer Allan Cubitt and Tiger Aspect Productions created another Boxing Day adventure for the great detective. Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking was an entirely original story by Cubitt, telling of a rash of murders of young girls among the upper-class families of London. It’s a dark and gripping mystery that has as much of the feel of contemporary police drama as it does the classic Holmes cases.

For reasons unknown, Richard Roxburgh did not return as Holmes for this sequel, which instead stars Rupert Everett. Always an actor to call on if you need an aloof, posh character, Everett makes for a distinctly sardonic Holmes, as ready with a cutting put-down as he is an astute deduction. In the two years since the previous story, Holmes has become disenchanted with his lot as a detective, isolating himself and indulging more in drugs to keep himself afloat. He and Watson have drifted apart, leaving Holmes saddened and disaffected.

Ian Hart returns as Watson, now having entered a new phase of life and engaged to be married. Hart is just as good as Watson as he was in Baskervilles, but is a more animated character, buoyed up by his happier life even as he clearly misses his time with Holmes. The good doctor still assists the police in a medical capacity, coaxing Holmes out of retirement to aid in the latest murder case. While he wasn’t slow to anger in Baskervilles, here Watson displays a righteous fury at both Sherlock’s behaviour and the sordid secrets of the upper classes.

A young woman is found dead in lower-class clothes, a silk stocking stuffed down her throat (a detail the coroner manages to miss until Holmes examines the body properly). Holmes quickly deduces that she is not some commoner, but the missing daughter of the Lord and Lady Pentney. Holmes realises that the body must have been dressed in the clothes of a previous victim – meaning there must be an unclothed first victim. Naturally, this is the case, the first victim having been dismissed as nothing more than a streetwalker and not worthy of investigation. An investigation of the murder scene reveals an incriminating thumbprint as well as immaculately preserved dancing shoes, with Holmes concluding that the killer has a foot fetish.

Until a couple of weeks before broadcast, the production was titled Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Season, a stylistically right but generic title that could apply to any number of Holmes pastiches. The Case of the Silk Stocking is far more evocative as well as being specific to the story. There’s a disjoint between the modern and traditional sides of the script and production. As with The Hound of the Baskervilles there was some involvement from PBS station WGBH in Boston, and there’s a clear intention to market this to the States by making it almost too British. While it has an Edwardian setting, it tries as hard as it can to evoke penny dreadful Victoriana wherever possible, not least with the copious use of CGI London fog. The script is sprinkled with odd lines taken from Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories to add a touch of authenticity.

The late Helen McRory gives a lovely performance as American widower Mrs Vandeleur, Watson’s new fiancé who happens to be a practising psychoanalyst specialising in sexual perversion. Making the killer’s motives explicitly sexual marks the script out as a modern take on the Sherlockian mystery, yet the apparent link between a harmless fetish and murderous intent seems positively Victorian. Mrs Vandeleur brandishes the Psychopathia Sexualis, one of the great works of homophobic psychiatry, which Holmes takes from her in good grace but with a subtle look of derision. Given the undertones of Holmes and Watson’s relationship – Everett has confirmed he played it as if Holmes and Watson were in love, albeit distanced from each other – there’s the suggestion that the entire story is mocking such close-minded attitudes.

Of course, Victorian and Edwardian society was downright seedy behind closed doors, in spite of the façade of respectability embodied by the aristocracy. Naturally, the murders only register with the law once they start affecting the upper classes. Most of the story takes place among the upper echelons, with Eleanor David and Jonathan Hyde putting on their poshest performances as the Pentneys, and Julian Wadham plays the rather more sympathetic Sir Hugo Massingham. Perdita Weeks and Rachel Hurd-Wood give dignified performances as two of the murderer’s potential victims.

The star draw now is a pre-Hollywood Michael Fassbender, even before his roles on Hex and Murphy’s Law, let alone hits like Inglourious Basterds and X-Men: First Class, as the sinister footman of the Pentney household. Neil, a man born to play persistent policemen, takes over from Danny Webb as Inspector Lestrade. Unlike his predecessor, he actually gets a part to play in this mystery, even if it’s primarily as a pair of fists. Guy Henry, a former Holmes in 1982’s Young Sherlock: The Mystery of the Manor House, has a brief role. The late Anne Carroll (Dixon of Dock Green) has a quick turn as Mrs Hudson.

While Silk Stocking deals with dark themes, it’s also more fun than its predecessor, unafraid to revel in Sherlock Holmes clichés. Watson gets to go undercover with an over-the-top American accent, while Holmes himself dons an absolutely ridiculous disguise that is both all-encompassing and totally transparent. The mystery hinges on one of the hoariest twists in the business, but holds together thanks to the intensity of the performances. Everett in particular is excellent as a callous, almost cruel Holmes who will set traps with little thought of the risks if it will further the investigation, with Hart dominating his scenes as a most forceful Watson.

Sadly, this was the last of Tiger Aspect’s Sherlock Holmes productions, and there would be no further adventures for either Everett or Hart as Holmes and Watson.

Review by Daniel Tessier